Well, Beerchasers, I’m going to start the New Year with some unfinished business and with belated Christmas greetings and miscellaneous tidbits I’ve been saving for the year-end. (External photo attribution at the end of the post #1)

I have not succumbed to using ChatGPT or equivalent for any writing and AI conceptually scares the heck out of me, but I figured using it for images like these two was a good compromise.

My wife who had admonished me that if I got on a ladder, she’d leave me, agreed to hire somebody to put Christmas lights on our house this year and they did a great job.

I decided to supplement it with AI and loved the result. Some people even asked me if that was real. I asked Janet if we could send the image as our Christmas card…So much for that idea. (#2)

Revisiting Jerry’s Tavern

In a recent blog post, I told you about a wonderful “new” Portland dive bar I discovered. Jerry’s Tavern – less than two years old, has already established itself as a premier Northwest dive. Even on its entrance, it purports to be “world famous.”

Portland Monthly Magazine asserted that Jerry’s had the best Bloody Mary in Portland.

“It’s the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever personally consumed in Portland, full stop, and an emblem of the perfected-classics ethos that guides Jerry’s Tavern.”

Since I had only consumed a Miller High Life on my first visit, I returned with my former colleague at the Schwabe Williamson law firm, Margaret Hoffmann. After we both downed a Bloody Mary, we agreed that it was pretty good, but the amount of testing to validate that premise at other bars was impractical.

Then in mid-December, Oregon Live food critic Michael Russell, in his column – “The Best Thing I Ate This Week” states emphatically:

“I thought I had a decent handle on Portland’s wing scene…In a single visit, Jerry’s Tavern upended all that.

The friendly Midwestern dive, tucked between the breweries and strip clubs of industrial Northwest Portland, serves the best wings I’ve had in Portland: big but not flabby, fried until the edges go all crispy, coated in a pitch-perfect Buffalo sauce.” (emphasis added)

Although it will be a challenge to pass up another meatloaf sandwich, Margaret and I agreed that we need a return trip – this time to try the wings.

Connections!

As I’ve stated before, I’m an Oregon State University Beaver and my wife, Janet is an Oregon Duck. The tradition of the Civil War Rivalry goes back to 1894 and has been contested 128 times through 2024. So, it’s hard for me to root for the Ducks – especially now that they’re in the Big Ten and the PAC12 is decimated.

That said, I admire former Duck and now Los Angeles Charger quarterback, Justin Herbert. He’s a true competitor and evidently a great teammate and leader. I was therefore interested to see that his current girlfriend is singer, Madison Beer. (#3 -#4)

The name Madison Beer vaguely rang a bell and then I remembered when we first ran into that moniker – the City of Boston in 2024. We had just finished a cruise from Montreal to Boston and had an extra day in Beantown, so we decided to hit Fenway Park where the Red Sox had an afternoon game with the Washington Nationals.

We didn’t want to rent a car and decided to brave mass transit. The hotel maître d’ gave us directions for using public transportation to get to Fenway. First, we had to take a bus to South Station. There are three levels to South Station and for help, we groveled and got a grumpy edict from a Transit Authority Officer:

“Take the Red Line to Park Street then the Green Line to Kenmore. Don’t screw it up or you’ll end up at Boston College.” Then he grinned (a little) and said, “Worst case is you’ll never return and your fate will be unknown….” 

Well, after a bus trip and two subway lines, we finally walked about four blocks to Fenway and joined an excited throng about two hours before game time.

When I say, “excited throng”, I have to clarify because I realized that a significant portion of the crowd – lined up for several blocks – was not in line for the baseball game – they were waiting with great anticipation for a concert at the MGM Music Hall at Fenway. 

“(It’s) a state-of-the-art, multi-purpose live performance venue that occupies roughly 91,500 square feet on four levels and accommodates 5,005 patrons.” (#5 – #6)

It was somewhat chilly and I wondered why most of the adolescent girls in line were dressed in tutus – in many cases supplemented by capes and tiaras. And most were without coats. I asked a security guard, and he said they were waiting for a Madison Beer concert scheduled to start at 7:30.

I thought Madison Beer was a micro-brewery in Wisconsin. I found out, however, that she’s a twenty-five-year-old singer- songwriter with ties to Justin Bieber. Fenway was one of sixty-three concerts on her 2023-2024 “Spinnin” world tour. These hardy kids had lined up five hours (or more) early for the evening concert for which they paid an average ticket price of $143.

Janet laughed and said, “Well, that’s one event at which you’d be way out of place even though you are Thebeerchaser!”

While Madison Beer and Canadian singer.Justin Bieber, had been good friends in the past, I would suggest that she picked the correct Justin for a more meaningful relationship! The quarterback is much better at the naked bootleg than the singer. (#7)

“The rain has its beauty, but my heart longs for the clear skies beyond it.”

We Oregonians are used to a wet environment. It’s usually either cloudy or rainy from late October through March. Most Oregonians don’t carry umbrellas – we get used to walking hastily through the drizzle. This year is different, however:

“(Up to) two-thirds of an inch of rain is likely for Portland by 12/5, while the coast could see between 1½ and 3 inches and the Cascades up to 4 inches of rain. Oregonians can handle rain, usually, but wind is another story

….Add the threat of winds up to 30 to 40 miles an hour, and Santa might want to do more than keep his wind surfboard handy. Willamette Week

How rainy was it? (#8 – #10)

1. Well, the term, “Atmospheric River” became part of the lexicon of Portland first graders.
2. Elementary school students became more concerned with hearing about landslides than the slides on their playground? 
3. Last week, heavy rains triggered a sewage overflow advisory for the Willamette River because Portland’s Big Pipe hit capacity.

What seems somewhat paradoxical on the meteorological front is that winter temperatures so far have been very mild. But that has been economically catastrophic for Oregon ski resorts:

“Oregon ski areas typically open for the season around Thanksgiving, but here we are in mid-December and the runs on Mounts Hood and Bachelor are still alarmingly snow free.

The multiple atmospheric rivers that swept through the Willamette Valley last week did nothing to help the mountains’ snowpack because it was too warm. It all fell as rain, just like it did down here. Willamette Week 12/15/25 (#11 – #12)

I’m finishing this post still on the topic of weather and relating a story about my late friend, author, Brian Doyle. He passed away from brain cancer, far too young at 60 in 2017. Acclaimed for his essays and novels, he was also Editor of the award-winning Portland Magazine published at the University of Portland.

More importantly, people loved Brian for his humor, compassion and sense of spirituality, family and nature. He also had a unique writing style that made his work captivating.

We became friends and Beerchasing buddies in early 2013 when I wrote to him after reading about the “Brian Doyle Humor Scholarship” at the University of Portland where my younger daughter attended.

 “No joke – you could earn one of five $3,333 Brian Doyle Scholarships in Gentle & Sidelong Humor for students who propose a way to bring some laughs to the (UP campus.)

…The application should include a brief but detailed idea for a humorous project, which can be anything — videos, comic books, comedy nights, websites, performances, graphic novels, you name it!”

My letter stated that I was intrigued and impressed with this way to enhance campus life and wanted to “honor” him by naming him my next Beerchaser-of-the-Quarter – an accolade he could put on his resume right below Notary Public.  

All it required, was for him to meet for a beer and an interview. Although a very busy guy, he agreed to meet me at the Fulton Pub. Brian drank wine, we had a wonderful conversation and a number of Beerchasing expeditions followed after that.

This talented author was also known as a gifted speaker. One reviewer wrote in 2010, “He’s an insanely intense and achingly vulnerable speaker who laughs and cries at his own stories.”

Brian spoke at a dinner of the Lang Syne Association in Portland in 2015. He gave one of his characteristic lists – things he appreciated about Oregon. Halfway through the inventory was this item: “A thorough patience and even appreciation for rain and mist and mud.” (emphasis supplied)

The next time we had a beer – at the St. John’s Pub on a stormy, yucky day, I chided him about paying tribute to our seemingly never-ending precipitation. Early the next day, I received a very short e-mail with only the words:

 “Heh, Heh…”, 

He attached an essay that was published in The American Scholar and included this excerpt:

“It has been raining so hard and thoroughly that the moss has moss on it. It has rained since last year, which is a remarkable sentence. Even the rain has had enough of the rain and it appears to be pale and weary when it shuffles to the lobby to punch in and out every day…….

Slugs have congregated in the basement and established a new religion complete with tithing expectations and plans for expansion into Latin American markets. Mold is now listed in the stock exchange.”   (#13)

My tribute to Brian written in 2017 can be found here Brian Doyle – Beerchaser Eternal. It’s gloomy in Oregon today, but just remembering Brian, brightens up this and any day.

Happy New Year

External Photo Attribution

#1.  – #2  AI Picsart

#3.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Justin Herbert presnap against the Washington Commanders.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: All-Pro Reels – 16 October 2025.

#4.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Madison Beer @ Grammy Museum 01 17 2024 (53835126344) (cropped).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Justin Higuchi 17 January 2024.

#5. Wikimedia Commons (File:MGM Music Hall at Fenway (54924676699).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Author: ajay_suresh – 8 November 2025.

#6.  Wikimedia Commons (File:Madison Beer @ The Wiltern 11 28 2021 (51783561891).jpg – Wikimedia Commons)  Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Author:  Justin Higuchi – 28 November 2001.

#7.  Justin Herbert Nation (https://www.facebook.com/groups/justinherbert/posts/1461114941857787/).

#8. Expedia.com  (ski lift)

#9. Wikimedia Commons (File:Timberline Lodge – 226 (8409305012).jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. Author: Mt. Hood Territory – 5 July 2005.

#10.  Wikimedia Commons (File:February 4th Atmospheric River.png – Wikimedia Commons) This media file is in the public domain in the United States.  Author: GOES-West satellite – 4 February 2024.

#11. City of Portland Government (https://www.portland.gov/bes/about-big-pipe).

#12. Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Downpour_in_Accra.jpg) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. Author: Fquasie – 22 March 2023.

#13. Wikimedia Commons (File:Nacktschnecke auf Steinen.jpg – Wikimedia Commons) Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.  Author: Perennis – 10 September 2019.